Stickin' it to Itachi
by beadlety
Summary: When you have nothing left, what's there to fear? Certainly not Itachi...M for language.
1. Hero

Chapter 1. Hero.

"You aren't very intelligent, are you?" Itachi's dark voice floated through the shadows to reach the feminine form opposite him, quiescent and semi-conscious.

There was silence as the figure stirred, opening glazed, muddled green eyes and inhaling shakily.

Her pink hair was clotted with blood and dirt.

Sakura blinked and rubbed her eyes, moaning when the action caused fire to shoot up her left side. For a moment her memories flurried about hazily in her mind like snow before jumping into focus abruptly.

_Sharingan eyes. Not one pair, but two. Here and elsewhere. Something had happened and she'd been hurt and it was Sasuke's fault and--_

The room was small and dusty, muting both color and sound. A tomb. Sakura wished for him to leave her alone and let her rest on the pitiful excuse for a bed opposite him. Then again, she wished for a lot of things that never happened.

Sakura slowly rolled to her right, so her back faced him, and snorted softly. "Intelligent...? Intelligence is relative." Her voice was crisp and authoritative. Sakura had grown up over the years. She was no longer the young simpleton of her genin days. As a seventeen year-old chuunin, she'd seen her fair share of blood, death, and destruction, and had found that she honestly found little joy in any of them. She'd become a cynic, due to both her occupation and what Sasuke--

She mentally slapped herself and forced her mind to focus on the conversation at hand. A hairsbreadth of a crack appeared in her facade, negligible but there.

Itachi's silence was response enough-- he wanted to hear the logic behind her statement. A part of her wanted to explain herself to him, but a far larger part demanded that she let him suffer in ignorance. She wasn't going to let Itachi push her around with his silence. If he wanted to know, he was going to have to ask her.

Finally -- reluctantly -- he caved. "What do you mean by this, kunoichi?" His voice, astonishingly, reverberated across the dampered room.

She smiled wistfully. One pathetic, meaningless victory.

Cracks began to spread through her repressed emotions, like fissuring ice. Freed, they bled like cold water, through her mind's shields and onto her face. Why hadn't her entire life been this easy? Why was everything a struggle? For once, just once, couldn't she be the hero? The genius? Why was she constantly the straggler at the back of the herd?

The vicious sneer that spread across her face was one that no one had ever seen her bear towards anything. It was unlike her to be so atavistic but, then again, some events did change people, for better or worse.

Her throat was choked with repressed emotion. She needed to be _calm_.

Pushing everything as far down as she could, she pulled up a nonchalant front. The muscles in her face went slack abruptly as she concentrated on her feelings. On her anger. Her hatred. The liquid ice of pure hate that surged through her and not the fiery emotions that fueled it. The same ice that made her able to speak and behave coolly despite her rage. She drew on that power, and threw her emotions to the wind.

With a sigh, she began her explanation. "Intelligence is relative because no matter how hard you try, there's always someone--" Her heated emotions surged forwards again, blending with her icy facade and shattering it. Oh, no. Sakura pressed her quivering lips together; not wanting to say more but knowing eventually that--

"Kunoichi." Though his voice was flat, there was a warning -- something that would brook no resistance.

She closed her eyes in agony, knowing that he would lose respect for her the instant she opened her mouth, if he hadn't already. The sticky, hot emotions burst through the remains of her mask and destroyed what remained in one fell rush.

No, she wasn't intelligent. She was a worthless in everyway. She didn't deserve respect--

_Stop it!_

She was tearing herself apart and she knew it, even if she couldn't control it.

A tear ran down her face, slipping over the bridge of her nose and dropping soundlessly onto her pillow. She didn't like the feelings that engulfed her; the helplessness, the need for comfort. All for Sasuke.

It was no longer a question of whether she could ignore her emotions, but whether she could keep them from Itachi.

She could do this; she would just open her mouth and speak plainly. Yes, she could hold it in. Despite the wet trail across her face, a sign of her breaking, she could do it.

_Hold it all in. Everything_. She would not cry for him. Never.

Sasuke.

She opened her mouth, but the instant she started to speak her voice cracked and sobs wracked her body. Damn it all. "Th-there is always someone, no matter how int-intelligent you are...No matter how b-brave...s-strong...no mat--" She coughed, choking on her own saliva for a moment as tears began to flood down her face.

Itachi waited patiently in the darkness behind her on the far side of the room. "No matter what...so-some goddamn bloody thing..." Now her voice was almost a wail. "...stupid, stupid _thing_." She sounded like she was cursing herself instead of someone else. "...will w-win because they're **better**." The final word was said with the utmost scorn and hatred. The fire of rage was all that remained within the husk that was Sakura.

Of course, he didn't understand. She didn't even understand. Hell, who could? She was raving. Sakura opened her eyes and struggled to quell the hysteria rising within her. It was simple.

Sakura needed to try again. She needed to pull it together. _Sasuke, how could you?_

_Just once, couldn't she be-_

The hatred, the putrid emotions controlling her mouth forced her ever onwards. "Everything is relative in this sense. Intelligence is relative because the standards that deem someone intelligent are subjective. Person A could be smart, but if someone smarter outwits Person A, then Person A seems the idiot even if they aren't."

She couldn't do it. She was going to break. Or had she already broken? The latter seemed more likely.

What had she been thinking to even try to bring him back? _Why couldn't she be--_

Her brain was working into overtime. Underneath her frantic thoughts ran one line of reasoning: he was a genius and she was not. She was going to die. She was going to lose. Again.

_Why couldn't she just-_

"Sometimes that isn't the case, as with you. You think I'm an idiot for multiple reasons. Let's analyze your line of reasoning. You find this half-dead, pink-haired thing on your door step." She mentally cringed and skirted the reason she had been injured, though her anger surged at the hint.

She heard him shift behind her quietly, a simple rustle of cloth. Impatience?

_Why couldn't she be the-_

"First off, you most likely don't appreciate pink--most people don't--, so, subconsciously, I've already lost a point or two. This silly little pink haired kunoichi is injured. Already the derogatory word 'silly' in reference to a woman has slipped into your thoughts. She's injured: how very inefficient and useless. Minus fifty points." Sakura was mentally flailing at this point. This hysteria-bomb had hit the final countdown and she had no idea which wire to cut. Shit. Her emotions were spiraling out of control faster than she could bring them to heel.

_Be the-_

Her voice rose five keys and came out of her mouth faster than she could come up with them. "You threaten to kill her. She should fear for her life, she should want to protect herself...but she doesn't! No, instead she demands that if you're going to kill her, you'd better damn well get it over with because she's tired of waiting! Well, that's weird. Weirdness is considered unintelligent when it comes to mannerisms. Minus one hundred!"

She couldn't stop it. A torrent of thoughts and words were coagulating in her mind, forming bizarre, irrational fragments. She couldn't think in her downward twisting spiral of hysteria and rage and could only hope that what she was saying was intelligible. Or perhaps unintelligible was better?

_Be the-_

"Now you try to have a civilized conversation with her, and you know what? She breaks down crying. A weak woman. Minus five hundred." With a final, aggressive wrenching of her mind, she managed to snap her mouth shut with a resounding click of her teeth.

_The-_

All of this was Itachi's fault. Her injury. Her hysteria. Even Sasuke's actions had their origins in what Itachi had done to the Uchiha clan. His clan.

Silence reigned throughout the dark room. The silence was oppressive, repressive, and she knew to the depths of her soul that he was still there. Watching. Listening. And he was going to pay.

He didn't think she was smart. Well, okay then.

_Just once, why couldn't she be the **hero?**_

Gathering all her will into a hard knot in the pit of her stomach, she finally spat out with vehemence, "Oh, and Itachi? You can go fuck yourself , 'cause I really don't care what you think about me."

---

TBC.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to review! I find input _very_ useful. Oh! And everyone thank Arianna-san! She beta-ed this!  
(If there are any typos or anything in this thing I can almost guarantee that it's fault. This chapter's been through the wringer so many times...)


	2. Chapter 2

Alright! Here's chapter two! It's around six pages long; my typical chapter length. Right now it's...10:20. I typed for three hours for this baby. Yeah, that right. I was up at 7 AM. Don't ask me why. I have no idea. So, woohoo! Chapter two! Partae!

I'm considering looking for a beta. I'm a bitchy stickler for grammar and punctuation myself, but it could never hurt to get a second opinion. Anyways, I _tried_ to keep the characters in character. The problem is that I haven't seen very much of Itachi in the anime (I've seen, what, three episodes?). I've never even heard him _speak_. BUT, I think I've observed, read, and heard aboutenough to know about his personality. If anyone feels like giving me an in-depth once-over of Itachi, that would be appreciated though!

Disclaimer: I do notown Naruto and the characters of Naruto.

CH2 - Untitled as of now

-----

_Gathering all her will into a hard knot in the pit of her stomach, she finally spat out with vehemence, "Oh, and Itachi? You can go fuck yourself 'cause I really don't care what you think about me."_

-----

Itachi glossed over her remark as though he had never heard it. Either that, or he didn't deign it worthy of a response. Sakura remained frozen where she was on her small bed, side aflame and in desperate need of a pain killer.

"You called my brother's name once, when you were…asleep." It was a statement and question combined and confirmed for Sakura that the only reason she was even alive at this point was because of her affiliation with Sasuke.

Sasuke.

Oh, Sakura had been a fool to think, even for a moment, that-…

"I don't appreciate your lack of response, kunoichi."

Uh-oh. She needed to think of something quickly. Some kind of rational excuse that was in no way as humiliating as the truth. There was a rustle of cloth and then something pressed hard against her wound. Fire lanced through her from her head to her toes and she curled in around herself. "A-Aaaa-..fine, fine, fine, fine, fine!"

Itachi released her wound and stepped away silently. There was silence again before Sakura spoke. She had no choice but to tell the truth. There was, in fact, only one way to explain the wound in her side. "I was on a mission. I won't tell you who I was with; it's not relevant," she gritted out. A bitter smile that Itachi couldn't see crawled across her face. "In all my glorifying ignorance, I thought I could pop off for a second and go on looking for Sasuke solo. You know, in some kind of sappy, romantic moment, convince him to come back to Konoha where we would live happily ever after. He chidori-ed my ass when I tried to make him come physically. That's it, short and sweet." Smooth. She felt like the epitome of nonchalantness.

There was a pause as Itachi digested the information. And then…"Would you like some tea?"

Sakura rolled onto her back and turned her head to glare at him. "Are you serious? Is this some kind of joke? You're a murder. A cold, calculating bastard that killed Sasuke's family and made him what he is today. Don't ask me if I want tea! Do something sadistic, if anything!"

Itachi leaned against the far wall of the cramped quarters. "You speak your mind decidedly for one who so recently realized that life is a bitter game. You don't seem particularly afraid of me, either." Another question.

And she definitely didn't want him to grab her wound again.

This was going to hurt, emotionally. She didn't want to think about Sasuke, the Uchihas, and herself. But, B-U-T, Itachi was forcing her to. "Why don't you just leave me alone! Why do you even care about what I think?"

"I don't. I was hoping that through you I could gain more information about Sasuke."

She bit her lip. "Sasuke was _everything_ to me. _Everything_. Now I have nothing."

"You have material wealth. You have your life. That is, unless you want me to take it away from you." He shifted slightly.

Sakura blanched, but stayed silent. Would it really be that bad? Dying? She'd lived for Sasuke, had trained as hard as she could for him, but what had it amounted to?

"Sleep, kunoichi." Itachi started to leave through the sliding door built into the wall.

Sakura didn't like the idea of sleeping, especially not wherever she was. She struggled to sit up while Itachi turned to watch impassively. Eventually she gave up and simply turned her head. "Why all of this? Why didn't you just leave me where I was dying?"

A cold smile materialized on his otherwise austere features. "Why would I let you die? Clearly Sasuke is still somewhat attached to you or he would have hit a…more vital area. I'm simply biding my time, however. I'll kill you when you are in plain sight of Sasuke."

Sakura's eye widened. "W-why?" _What the hell?_

Itachi turned to leave again. "There's a difference between hearing about a loved one dying…and actually seeing it. I made a mistake the first time, when I killed our family. He wasn't there to witness their deaths, only their corpses. This time, however, I won't be so erroneous in my judgment."

-----

_Sasuke stared back at Sakura, sharingan spinning. "Go home Sakura. You're too weak to do anything." Cold. Ice. She was careful to not look into his eyes._

_Sakura took a step forward, crystalline tears running down her dust-streaked face. She was winded and bruised from head to toe from struggling with Sasuke. "Please! Come home! You have love there! Happiness! And me…I…I love you too! Come back, Sasuke!" That was it. Her confession. She had jumped off the cliff and now she could only hope that there was a pool of water to greet her at the bottom and not rocks._

_His voice was flat. "No."_

_Sakura took another painful step forward._

_For a moment he seemed to recede into himself. "I…need more power…and then…**Itachi**."_

"_No, Sasuke! Don't! Let time take care of Itachi. He's only a man! One day he'll fall to his old age, just like everyone else!"_

_Sasuke's eyes narrowed to slits. "…Not good enough." She was too close. Suddenly he lunged forwards, bringing his leg around to hit the side of her head. She was too tired, too slow; the blow connected. Sakura went sprawling sideways. For a moment the world went black, before it her eye sight returned. Skull ringing, she dragged herself to feet. "Sasuke…"_

_He was getting angry. "Why do you keep getting up? You lose! Stay down!"_

"_Sasuke…" She wobbled on her feet but started towards him again. She loved him. She really did. No matter how much pain she went through…if she could just get Sasuke back…_

_Sasuke moved towards her again, pulling his arm back for another blow. "Why don't you just stay **down**." His last word was punctuated by his fist slamming into her stomach, flooring her again._

_She lay there for a moment, still, eyes closed. _

"_Just **give up**!"_

_There was a brief pause where it seemed like she had given up before she screwed her eyes shut with pain and doggedly pulled herself to her feet once more. Her mind was reduced to one pain induced phrase. **Bring him back. Bring him back. Bring him goddamn-fucking BACK.**_

_Sasuke was livid. "Why don't you just die?" The chidori appeared in his hands. Her eyes gazed at him, flat and mindlessly determined. She stepped forward. **Bring him back. Bring him back.** The chidori was almost ready. Just a little more…_

_**Bring him back. Bring him back.**_

_Sasuke took off towards her, thousands of birds whistling in the air._

_**Bring him back. Bring him back.**_

_The chidori connected solidly with Sakura's side._

_**Bring him back. Bring him-…**_

-----

_Pain_.

Fire lanced through Sakura and she awoke to find herself screaming Sasuke's name wretchedly. Her eyes felt muggy with sleep.

She turned her head to see acup of steaming tea and two pain killers on the nightstand beside the cramped bed she was laying on. Had Itachi brought them? Well, at least she knew his motives, for the most part.

Sasuke had hit her left side with his chidori and the nightstand…was on her left side. Blast it all. She tried to raise her left arm and only succeeded in gaping like a fish with pain. Sakura suspected that some how, Itachi had something to do with her inconvenient positioning. Great. She was trapped in a bed near a _subtly_ malicious person.

Gritting her teeth, Sakura jerked her left arm up into the air and towards the nightstand. The pain killers were her first priority. The tea, unfortunately, could wait. Her hand hit the table with a heavy _thunk_. Underneath her palm rested the pills. She curled her fingers around them and painfully pulled them towards her mouth. She swallowed them dry and then tried to get the tea. This was a more difficult task. She couldn't just swat at the delicate, cerulean tea cup or she'd smash it. She vaguely heard the sound of a door sliding open but ignored it. She really wanted the tea.

Itachi was once again watching her impassively as she struggled to grab the teacup

Irked, she narrowed her eyes at him. Why not? She knew that he wouldn't kill her until she was within Sasuke's vicinity. Sasuke's_ visible_ vicinity. "You know, you could, like a polite gentleman, offer to help me with the tea."

His response was instantaneous. "And if I did, would you accept my help?"

Sakura scowled at him. "No."

"Then I don't see why you're complaining."

She managed to get her fingers to close around the teacup. At least he was borderline civil with her. "I'm complaining-…" she began as she started to maneuver the teacup towards her. "…Because…"

Just a little closer…

"I wanted to be able to say 'no' when you offe-…Fuck!" The just-boiled tea had spilt on her.

Itachi left the room, a stream of profanities following him down the hallway outside Sakura's room.

"Can't anything go right? Did I fucking _shit_ on a god or something in a past life? For the love of-…" Itachi chose to ignore her crude shrieks as he sauntered away. She was having a break down. Admittedly it was just tea, but as they say, the tea was 'the straw the broke the camel's back.'

To say that he had had any dealings with the arrangement of the furniture and lack of aid with both the tea and medicine was an understatement. He was a selfish man and fortunately, most individuals were dumb enough to be made pawns of. Itachi had anticipated a break down in order to make sure things stayed relatively calm in his home. If she burned herself out now, he would be able to keep his own rage and personality in check.

This was a chess game and all he needed was a decent amount of foresight to see his own goals to fruition.

-----

Itachi returned soon after Sakura had calmed down with her teacup refilled. Her face was tear streaked and she looked wearily bitter. Since she was calmer, her rage and sadness released, he placed the teacup in her right hand. She eyed him warily but drank the tea. She was exhausted and the pain in her side had eased a bit.

"Itachi?" Her eyes were muzzy despite the conscious edge to her voice.

"What now?" Was that a faint undertone of annoyance?

"How do you live with yourself at night? I mean, how can you-…"

Itachi turned to leave the room, face blank.

"Hey! I'm talking to you, jackass! Do you know what Sasuke's been through because of-…" Sakura was struggling to sit up when she was interrupted by Itachi.

"Kunoichi. You don't know anything about Sasuke's situation. Your ignorance and rudeness in the home of another and in the face of civility makes you seem the fool. Do not open your mouth unless what you have to say is truly intelligent."

With that he slid the door to her room shut. For a moment she gaped. Had he just…called her a fool? And what was that about Sasuke?

Sakura spent the night festering in a mire of her own confusion and regret.

-----

**Forshadow for next chapter: **"You do not have the capacity for anything remarkable. You were not bred to kill."

So that's chapter two! Are they OC? I haven't really given anyone's age (I'll mention it in the story later), but Sakura's around seventeen. She's older and she knows that life isn't about rainbows and unicorns. She's bitchy, she has a temper, and is extremely sarcastic. She's also deeply embittered because of Sasuke. I'll cover all of this in later chapters, but, incase anyone starts poking me now, I'll mention it.


	3. Chapter 3

-1Hi! Here's chapter three. Don't flame me too terribly!...Though not at all would be best!

This chapter is more of a character analysis to help me out later...well, and help Sakura. As far as I can tell, she's screwed.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and the characters of Naruto!

CH3 - untitled as of yet

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_Sakura spent the night festering in a mire of her own confusion and regret._

-----

A week quickly passed for Sakura as she drifted in and out of consciousness. Sometimes she would awake to find some soup on the nightstand or a cup of tea. The only thing that remained a constant was the pain. She sorely wished that she had Naruto's ability to heal quickly. She did not want to be in Itachi's home and she most certainly did not want to remain any longer than was absolutely necessary. Sakura grimaced. She needed to return to her team before they began to worry about her absence.

When Sakura was awake, she thought about her life and the lives of those around her. A part of her yearned for the ignorance and bliss of her youth. Her simple minded, incessant fawning over Sasuke. Her clean hands, unstained with blood. At seventeen, a chuunin, she had killed her fair share of people. Her view of life was one of cynicism. As a child she had dreamed of being a ninja and a 'hero' of Konoha. Now she dreamed about the day all of that would end.

Her mind drifted to her first semi-coherent conversation with Itachi. Where, despite her best intentions, she had seemed like a raving lunatic. Her apparently random rant about triumph through dumb luck put her teeth on edge. Sakura bit her lip. She didn't even explain what she'd been talking about to Itachi. Raving lunatic…yep, that was her.

Just then Itachi slid the door open with his foot and stepped in with a tray. A bowl of soup sat innocently atop it. Sakura knew better, however. Itachi's soup was not something for a mere mortal. Apparently, he liked things ridiculously spicy and this tended to lead to flaming bowls of soup that left Sakura with tears running down her cheeks.

"You're awake." His voice was level and calm. As usual.

"Yes." She paused. "Umm…" She had a question that had been bothering her for a while.

"What." Itachi placed the tray on the nightstand and then proceeded to prop Sakura up with some pillows. Sakura had to wonder vaguely why he even bothered. He was a bastard, wasn't he?

"Who's been…ah…changing my bandages?"

"I have." Totally flat. Nonchalant. Sakura wanted to rip her hair out with frustration.

"Wha-…? How dare you? Why? First off, I thought you were going to kill me anyway! Why heal me if you're just going to kill me? Secondly, I'm a woman if you haven't noticed! Don't you dare ever touch me agai-…" Itachi stared at her dispassionately until she drifted off into silence.

He remained silent until he was sure she would not speak again. He leaned in close, his voice low and filled with malice. "If you're already injured, you'll have difficulty writhing in pain in front of Sasuke as I kill you. It needs to be dramatic. Killing a half-dead person that won't even twitch does not serve my purposes. I need screaming. I need pain. I need you to be _alive and kicking_. I need Sasuke to _want_ revenge."

Sakura could only gape in pure, unadulterated horror. _Monster…Demon…**WHY?**_

He leaned back. "To you're second, incoming question: objectivity." Sakura gaped.

"W-well, don't you have a maid or something that could do it?" Sakura asked, flustered and terrified. He was _evil_. The _epitome_ of evil, even.

Again, the flat stare. "Kisame would probably kill her, rape her, and then eat her." Sakura's mouth made an 'o' shape. Itachi was being sarcastic, but it vaguely amused him to see the look on her face--he decided to leave her in the dark…

He sighed. "Eat." The ease with which he was able to deflate a situation was stunning.

Some of the tension drained out of her. She picked up the bowl, fumbling only a little before she began to slurp at its red-hot contents. Itachi sat in a small rickety chair he had placed in the corner of her room. She could feel her tongue begin to burn.

"You spoke earlier of intelligence, relativity, and subjectivity. I wish to hear more."

What? Why? Sakura squirmed in her bed. She wanted to throw back the covers and run like hell. Instead she forced her lips to form words. "Well…any sort of idea or belief you hold is just that: an idea or belief. These ideas and beliefs are based on what you were taught, morals, your personal history…everything. That makes all of your thoughts subjective and partial to one idea or another."

She paused, thinking. What was she saying again? She started to panic, the speed of her breathing increasing. Itachi laced his fingers together, eyes intent. "And this…'subjectivity' is related to relativity." It all came back to her, panic forgotten.

"Yes! Relativity is defined to be the state of dependence of one factor on another. So, if one factor changes, the other will as well. Like X and Y. As your ideas and beliefs change, what you _define_ as…say…'intelligence' changes. So, in that sense, many things can be called relative and can certainly be tied to subconscious impulses. Therefore, 'intelligence is relative.'"

"I see." He leaned back in his chair. "Am I correct in assuming that your little tirade at the beginning of the week had to some how do with this, the deluding amount of pain you were in, and Sasuke?"

Sakura bit her lip and looked down at the soup in her lap. "I don't have to tell you anything."

His reply came on the heels of her own. "And I really don't care." Ugh.

Sakura's head shot up and she glared at him, annoyed. He was right though. He had no reason to care. Reluctantly, she decided to continue despite his commentary. "I trained all my life, as hard as I could, just to bring Sasuke back. But it's like…no matter what I do…how hard I try, how much I rise above the rest….I always get topped. Sasuke beat me down without getting a scratch."

"That's simple enough to explain." Deadpan.

Sakura's eyes filled with questions.

"You do not have the capacity for anything remarkable. You were not bred to kill. The Uchiha clan…is-…_was_ a clan that prided itself on its abilities. It was always about pushing the next generation harder…making them stronger-…"

Sakura didn't want to hear any more. "I want to go outside." She didn't care about the fact that she was being rude. She didn't care that rudeness in the face of civility looked foolish. Fine, she was a fool. She just _did not _want to hear it.

Itachi looked at her a moment before standing. "I'm not stopping you." Picking up the tray and half-empty soup bowl, he left her alone with her thoughts.

A very small part of her wondered, randomly…_was **he** the maid? _Bah.

-----

Sakura awoke to see something green and shiny on her nightstand.

An apple.

For a moment her mind fuzzily contemplated the existence of the apple…Wait, was there supposed to be some kind of bizarre, virginal symbolism behind this? Kind of like a pomegranate?

On second thought, she didn't want to think about it too much. Instead, she really wanted to get out of her room. She was starting to get a little squirrelly. She needed a bath. She needed to escape. She needed to…bah, there were too many things.

Ignoring the wrenching pain in her side, she forced herself to sit up. If Sasuke's attack had been just a little less severe, Sakura would have been able to heal it on her own. As it was, her own skills weren't advanced enough…_yet_. When the wound had healed a little bit more on its own, she would be able to repair herself completely. She slowly eased her feet onto the cool wood floor and pushed herself upwards. The room spun a little as the blood rushed out of her head but she managed to remain standing. The dried scabs beneath her bandages strained as she straightened and moved towards the sliding door. The door she had been yearning to open for an entire week.

She gingerly slid the door back and peeked around the corner. She was afraid of what Itachi was going to do to her, but, more pressingly, she was worried about Kisame. Rape? Cannibalism? Had Itachi been…joking? She slithered into the hallway.

Itachi's behavior and words had convinced her of one thing: she was an integral part of whatever he was planning. Whatever she decided to do, she needed to break out of the mold Itachi had cast for her.

The man in question appeared at the far end of the hallway. "Ah, the kunoichi."

Sakura grimaced. The way he said it sounded so…derogatory. "I have a name. It's Sakura."

Itachi blinked slowly. "I don't care." His eyes then moved from her face to her hair. He frowned. "The bathroom is to your left." With that, he was gone again.

Sakura scowled at the place where he had been. He certainly said 'I don't care' an awful lot. She turned to face the door opposite her room and opened it. And there, in all its glory, was the bathroom.

-----

_**Bring him back. Bring him back. Bring him**_-…

Sakura started awake. A vision of the bathroom greeted her. The water she was in was cool but refreshing and she had taken to the soap like a starved man to food. Thank the gods for civilization. The vision of her fight with Sasuke still haunted her though, and now the soap no longer held its appeal. Fuck. Her wounds, especially the chidori-induced one, hurt terribly.

Skin stinging and depressed, she got out of the tub, toweled off, and put on the clothes that she had awoken in. They consisted of a massive white shirt and some equally large black pants. She didn't want to even begin to contemplate where they came from. Sakura didn't re-bandage that _particular_ wound, either. She suspected that some air would do it good.

Finished, she roamed around the relatively small building that she had dubbed 'Itachi's House' until she found the front door. Outside was a small meadow surrounded by forest. In the distance she could make out snow-capped mountains. It was beautiful. Too bad this was where Itachi lived, the jerk.(1)

She wondered where the rest of her scouting team was. Sakura knew for a fact that _if_ she ever made it back to Konoha, she was going to be in for some serious scolding. She sat down on the steps of the veranda surrounding the house and watched as the sun began its slow descent in the sky.

-----

Itachi was an enigma. A terrifying, paradoxical enigma. He possessed a well maintained façade; one of ice, steel, concrete, and every other impenetrable substance out there. His actions seemed to be doled out almost in rote: fixed responses to this and that scenario. It was almost like watching a machine function. His words were his own but his actions occasionally did not support them. His civility and politeness seemed to have been drilled into him. The way he made her soup…and propped her up on her pillows _did not _in anyway back up what he had threatened. And she had no doubt in her mind that he would follow through with those threats, one day.

It was very effeminate of him…taking care of her. She must be some sort of crucial chess piece to him, if only she could understand.

Sakura pretended to be Itachi in her mind. It didn't work, exactly. She just ended up envisioning herself killing little kittens. She grimaced and tried again. She needed…anger. No, not quite anger. Something colder and more aesthetic. Something vicious and just below the surface. Something atavistic…animalistic. Self-sustaining and border-line id driven. She felt herself becoming cold and irritable. But there had to be love…somewhere…or at least something similar to love. Perhaps a twisted, pale imitation of love….so skewed that it could passably resemble hatred…What about Sasuke? Could it be...?

Oh, Sasuke…

_**Bring him back.**_

-----

Sakura opened her eyes to see the sky filled with stars. It was cold outside, and a light wind crawled over her exposed flesh. She shivered but remained where she was.

Clearly, Itachi's plan was Sasuke-centric. Itachi wanted Sasuke even angrier and more vengeful than he already was. But to what end? Self-destruction? Sakura didn't know all the facts and she knew that that wasn't good. How could a chess piece deviate from the chess master's plan when the chess piece didn't know which way to turn _to _deviate?

-----

_**Foreshadow:**_

"When all else fails, one should just pretend that one honestly has _no idea_ what's going on."

"Really?"

"No."

-----

(1) Where the deuce is Kisame? To tell you guys the truth, what I wrote about Itachi (my char. analysis) is what I have GLEANED. For Kisame...I have practically nothing to work with. From what I have read he is a crude, callous individual, but that's it. Some Kisame info would be nice...

Squee! And that's the end of chapter three! I'm leaving for the BVI tomorrow so I'm going to have to leave you guys hanging! I feel kinda bad... Ah, well. I'll plan out some chapters to make up for it! Please review. It makes me feel very happy and very loved!


	4. Chapter 4

-1The chess player can see the whole board, while the pawn can only see its surrounding spaces, am I rriiiggghhhtt? Don't get me wrong, Sakura's not stupid. She just doesn't get it…yet. Oh, sorry if there are a lot of typos in here. I haven't reread it like…eight times yet. I really need a beta…

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I do not own the characters of Naruto. Damnation.

CH4 - Untitled, fools.

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_How could a chess piece deviate from the chess master's plan when the chess piece didn't know which way to turn **to **deviate?_

-----

The next day found Sakura and Itachi sitting on the smooth, wooden veranda. With tea. Sitting Indian-style. She had to wonder what was with him and the tea, but she kept it to herself.

It irked her to even be in his presence. The very air he breathed seemed evil. Loathsome. Contaminated. There was that, and the fact that he had saved her in order to kill her in a brutal fashion some time the future. The bastard.

Sakura slouched slightly and blew at a pinkish strand of hair that flopped into her face. There was only _one_ pleasing thing she could find in this entire, cursed situation. Itachi wasn't going to kill her anytime soon. And he seemed to like playing maid.

She picked up her pastel green tea cup and sipped, calmly. _Calmly_. _**Very** damn calmly. _Tears prickled at the backs of her eyes and she hurriedly blinked them away. She was strong. A kunoichi, damn it. And she was _not_ going to cry in front of Itachi.

Sakura was hurting on the inside, though. Sasuke had rejected her again. Had told her to fucking _die_. She didn't want to think about it. She made sure her behavior was relatively stable and was defined as her 'normal' behavior, but she _hurt_. And she wanted to die. What scared her about Itachi threatening her life in any way was that she was going to die _in front of Sasuke_. Anything was better than that. She _loved_ Sasuke. Despite the fact that he loathed her, she did not want to see him hurt in any way, physically or emotionally. She yearned to just reach out and embrace(1) him. Tell him that everything was alright. That he didn't need power. That he was safe and that he didn't need to fight.

But she couldn't. If he didn't want her, she would respect that. She would keep her distance. If he wanted power, well, damn it, why not? It went against everything she stood for, but what did that matter, right? As long as he was happy…

Sakura twitched. He had told her to die, though. Could she respect that too? Well, she certainly didn't fear death anymore. A startling realization struck her between the eyes in the form of a headache:

_What it really came down to was that she would do anything that Sasuke asked of her._

Sasuke was everything to her. It was foolish, but true. And without him…she had nothing. How had she gotten herself into this situation?

Sakura began to get angry. All of this. All of Sasuke's torment was because of the man sitting beside her. Rage surged through her before she quelled it. She was the apprentice of Tsunade! All she had to do was lunge forwards and-…her muscles tensed in anticipation.

"Don't even think about it." Itachi didn't bother to glace her way as he spoke.

She widened her eyes innocently. "Pardon me?" She sipped her tea, quiescent.

He barely turned his head; enough for his sharingan eyes to connect with her own, mediocre ones. "You know, when all else fails, one should just pretend that one honestly has _no idea_ what's going on."

Sakura blinked. "Really?"

"No." His voice was flat. He turned his head back to view the countryside, ignoring her once more.

_That bastard_. The silence stretched on pleasantly as she sat shaking with rage.

She gritted her teeth, trying to get some sort of reaction. He couldn't kill her, after all. "Was that supposed to be some kind of pathetic joke? Well, guess what? It sucked! Ha, ha! Aren't you just so funny! Were you the class clown?"

He continued to ignore her. More silence. He didn't even turn his head, this time. "Do you want some more tea?" There was that damn civility again. The icy, isolating politeness. Where the hell was the rage? Why didn't he bite back?

Sakura snapped. "For the love of-…No, I don't want any bloody tea! I hate you! Do you know that! Hate! H-A-T-E! Spell it, _Uchiha genius_!"

He slowly turned his head. Both eyes fastened to her form as he stared at her straight on. Slowly Itachi put down his tea cup. His hand came up, reaching towards her. Frozen in fear, Sakura snapped her eyes shut. Just because she didn't fear death didn't mean that she didn't fear _pain_. His hand encircled her wrist. It was warm and calloused, not the cold hand of a bloody killer. His grip was firm, but not rough. "Kunoichi…do not tempt me. You are not the only one I could use for Sasuke…" Sakura's eyes snapped open. _Naruto_.

Another pawn.

He released her wrist and stood, taking his tea cup with him back into the house.

Holy of unholiest hells. Holy-…What was _that_, in his eyes? That anger. Nothing she had tried previously had worked…so what had set him off this time? She had no idea at all.

Shaken, she turned to watch the wind ripple through the grassy meadow. Over head, white fluffy clouds meandered about lazily. Everything was so peaceful…And Itachi was angry.

Fear wormed its way into her heart and she hunched over. A quick flick of the wrist and she'd tossed back her entire cup of tea. She swallowed it in a single gulp. Would he kill her? Of course he would. He was Itachi. Birds flew. Fish swam. Itachi killed. It was a law of nature.

A faint scuffle of shoe on wood was all she heard of his reappearance. Slowly he lowered himself back down beside her. The anger…was gone. It had vaporized into nothingness. _That_ was what scared her the most: anger simply didn't…disappear. Lips trembling she turned completely to face him. "I'm a prisoner here, aren't I?"

"No." He picked up the tea kettle he had brought with him and poured more tea into her cup. He added some more to his own, after some thought.

Her eyes almost crossed at that. A mixture of relief and confusion flooded through her. But…she had to know why she wasn't some sort of hostage. "You're being irrational-…"

"I'm being perfectly rational." He was succinct, voice monotonous.

"Um, no, you're not." She sipped some of the tea. She had to remember, Itachi was the Uchiha _genius_. He had to have a reason. If **he** thought he was thinking rationally, then he must have been. Sakura frowned. What was she missing? What…

"I could have poisoned that." He looked at her darkly, distracting her.

"I don't care." She took a large gulp just to prove her point, though she burned her tongue in the process. Suddenly she froze. "So wait…Are you telling me that I could have left any time?" If she wasn't a hostage…

He took his time answering, sipping some tea and gazing at the scenery. Then, finally…"Yes."

She shot to her feet. Anger didn't even begin to describe what she was feeling. "You are a fucking bastard. I hope you know that." She threw her tea cup to the ground, eyes wide with ferocity. It shattered, pieces scattering everywhere.

-----

Itachi gazing at the meadow impassively, glass shards forgotten. There was something nice about nature. It was all so simple, yet beautiful. Kill or be killed. He closed his eyes thoughtfully, deactivating the sharingan in the process.

That kunoichi…that _girl_…got on his nerves.

And he had really…_really_…wanted to kill her. Her swearing was obnoxiously repetitive and she was right, he did hate her hair.

But he couldn't kill her. She was the weakest pawn in his game, but also worth the most. If he killed her he would have to redouble his efforts in capturing the Kyuubi. A bothersome task, that. Then he would have to somehow extract the Kyuubi _in the presence_ of Sasuke, since the extraction process killed jinchuurikis.

He ignored that option. No, it wasn't even an option. It was a scenario that would never come to pass.

Itachi allowed his eyes to trace over the faint lines in the grass as the sun began to set. That kunoichi…he had been forced to cover for his lack of control multiple times by asking distracting questions and doing menial chores that required leaving the room. Normally he would have refused to do such belittling things, but he _couldn't_ kill her. Not with all the pieces almost in position.

She was smart, too. That brat. When she had been accusing him of being irrational…a few seconds more and she would have figured out why she wasn't a hostage.

And that simply wouldn't do.

-----

After shrieking at Itachi, Sakura had sprinted into the meadow, distancing herself from _his_ house as best she could. The cool shadows that hit her frame as she entered the forest were a relief. Despite the clothing she wore, she was able to maneuver fairly well. Even without shoes.

Throwing chakra carelessly into her legs, she dove into the air and onto a tree branch. Sakura was sure that her team had already returned to Konoha, so, after a quick glance at the mountains in the distance and the sun in the sky, she began heading north-west. She knew those mountains and using them she would be able to find Konoha easily. What puzzled her the most was how the ANBU hadn't been able to find Itachi. Maybe he had some influence over them still…scary thought.

-----

"Sa-ku-ra!" Ew. She'd recognize that man's voice anywhere. It was Naruto.

She kept her back turned, clearly in denial, even though she knew what was coming. She tilted her head up to the sky…it had been three years since that week…

Shaking her head with a sigh, she turn her mind to the present, visualizing what Naruto was doing though her back was to him. He was barreling down the street, eyes fixed on her. He was closing in. Any second he would-…

Something heavy and enormous collided with her, wrapping her up in a huge bear hug. "Sakura!"

She laughed and tried to work herself out of his arms. "Hey, Naruto." Naruto wasn't a short little blonde kid anymore. He was tall, towering over her by more than ten inches. Though his growth spurt had been late, it had indeed come. He was still as boisterous and loud as ever, unfortunately. His body had changed; his mind had not.

She laughed again as he set her down. "What's up?"

He gaped at her. "Are you serious? I came running down here to congratulate you and-…you were accepted into the ANBU, weren't you?

Sakura smirked. "Maybe."

"Sakura…" he whined.

"Oh, fine. Yes. Yes, I was." He laughed again, scooping her up and spinning her around. "Yeah! Now we might be put on the same teams sometimes! Hey, now that you're with me again, maybe Sasuke will come back, too! Then we'll be Team Seven all over again-…" The rest of his speech faded into the back ground

Sakura was frozen at his words. She glanced around guiltily, wide eyed. She kept expecting for _him_ to appear every time Sasuke's name was mentioned. Suddenly cold, she shivered. If this kept up she would most likely walk away from all of this with some kind of Sasuke phobia…if she walked away at all.

Naruto came out of his happy raving and frowned. "What's wrong Sakura?"

"No! Ah, nothing. It's just nothing." She smiled weakly. "Oh! Wanna go eat ramen?"

Naruto grinned from ear to ear. "Sure! I thought you'd never ask! It's on me, this time!"

-----

_**Foreshadow:**_

"_**It would seem that you can't stay away from me, kunoichi."**_

"_**Funny, I was thinking the same thing." Twit.**_

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(1) Ew. I hate the word 'embrace.' Why the hell did I use it?

Surprise, surprise! Looks like I was able to fit in one more chapter! Now doesn't that just make you smile? Anyways, I'm a slave to reviews. Please review! I love hearing from you guys!

Yep. I'm still going to the BVI. Just…I don't know. I wanted to write another chapter. Chapter five is in the works. I have some vague ideas about what's going on, but I don't know for sure until I actually pull up a blank screen. How's that for insane? You know the foreshadows? I write them before I even THINK about the next chapter. Then it's kind of a game, trying to fit it in. It's not too hard though, if you're creative enough.

Review! Review! Review!


	5. Ch5 Foreshadow

Awwww…you guys like it. That makes me feel so warm inside. Anyways, I figured, since I'm going to be gone for a while, that I would…post a scene? It doesn't include the phrases from the fore shadow for chapter four but…it _is_ pretty fun. And evil. Kisame's in it. I decided to make him a sort of…sadistic comic relief? Does that even work? He ends up being kind of like…the Akatsuki's metaphorical martyr. He takes a lot of hits in the form of Sakura.

_Kisame lurched to his feet abruptly. _

_The trio had been sitting peacefully in the kitchen drinking tea. Well, both Sakura and Itachi looked absolutely content to just sit there, mute and staring silently at each other, but Kisame was about to go insane. Any form of conversation had been reduced to simple gestures. A minute twitch at the corner of the mouth. A hint of a scowl. The smallest raising of an eyebrow. This was the game of the Subtle, and Kisame was anything but subtle. After an hour of intense brow furrowing with no response from either of them, he decided it was time for him to leave…and perhaps ransack the Kunoichi's temporary room out of malice._

_Irked, he grimaced at both of them. They, in turn, gazed at him innocently and uncaring. It was time to leave. "You guys blow." With that he turned to stump out of the room, Samehada dragging behind him._

_This was too good an opportunity to pass up. Sakura quirked at an eyebrow at Itachi, smirked lightning fast, and tossed back her tea._

_**This** was it._

_She couldn't harm Itachi; he was simply too strong. If she were to try anything she would get pummeled into the ground, for sure, though she wouldn't get killed. Kisame was a different story, however. Itachi would actually protect her from him, since she was a part of Itachi's little schemes. Itachi narrowed his eyes slightly in response. What was she up to?_

_Kisame was almost to the door, meaning she had very little time left. She flipped her small, porcelain teacup over and licked the bottom, eyes fixed on Itachi. His own widened. **Yeah, you know it.**_

She leaned over the floor in her chair, placing her teacup on its edge. With the flick of her wrist the teacup went spinning across the floor at an incredible speed, virtually silent.

_Kisame never saw it coming. His foot came rolling out from under him, courtesy of Sakura's teacup, and he landed on his back with a heavy thump._

_It was the most degrading thing she had ever seen: an Akatsuki member taken out by a teacup._

_Kisame howled with rage._

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Gawd, that was fun to type...anyways...

...REVIEW! (**eyes kitchen knife nonchalantly)**


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